Stem cell research and interest has been accelerating in recent years since methods of identification have been developed. Certain stem cells within the body have the potential to differentiate under proper environment into different cell lines. The stem cells, that are able to differentiate under proper environment into different cell lines, are generally dispersed in many tissues and not readily identifiable in vivo nor readily concentrated for clinical applications outside sophisticated cellular laboratories. There has been an increasing interest in medical applications and hope of promoting healing of damaged organs and regenerating tissue in areas like damaged hearts, kidney, or even nerves. Nerve tissue damage is often devastating to the individual until recently, as the nerve tissue damage has been thought as non-repairable. The stem cells have been found in embryos and umbilical cord blood. However, such sources were challenged by ethical issues and issues of antigenic compatibility between donor and recipient cell lines. In more recent years, autologous sources of pluro-potential cells were found in bone marrow, blood, and fat. For autologous applications, blood, bone marrow, and fat offer a readily accessible tissue with minimal morbidity in harvesting the stem cells.
When the fat tissue is broken down, the lipid containing component is removed. The residual is referred to as a stromovascular component that contains numerous mesenchymal derived pluripotential cells. The stromovascular component including concentrated stromaovascular cells, which are of great interest for their potential in tissue regeneration in variety of degenerative clinical conditions such as ostoarthiritis, chondromalacia, cardiovascular, and neurological conditions. Numerous studies also suggest that the regional effect of surrounding tissue in need of repair plays a role in cellular differentiation as well as circulating factors described as growth factors.
Existing approaches in autologous concentration of fat derived stem cells, also referred to as a stromovascular layer or component, are based on enzymatic breakdown of supportive structures and small vessels were the pluro-potential cells are thought to reside within fat. Protocols for clinical use harvest stromaovascular cells or stem cells from fat tissue of a patient, and subject the fat tissue to an enzymatic breakdown, followed by a centrifuge cycle to extract the stromovascular component or stromaovascular cells, and then mixing the stromovascular component with Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) derived from blood to contain a variety of stimulating growth factors. Some approaches also subject the mixture of stromovascular component with PRP to light stimulation/activation of underlying peptide factors before reinsertion of the mixture into the patient. Recent studies in Korea and UCLA identify a subset of pleuripotential cells within fat called Muse-AT that appear to have greater differentiation and repair capability than other mesenchymal derived cells.
The conventional process not only introduces reagents to the fat sample, but also has challenges in proper processing and retention of sterility if such stromovascular cells were to be re-injected into the same patient. Specifically, by using collagenase or similar enzymes to breakdown the supportive structures in fat tissue or fat sample, followed by centrifugation, the stromovascular cells can be concentrated and used in numerous emerging clinical applications. The above extraction for a viable stromovascular component from fat tissue is generally a cumbersome laboratory process, which introduces enzymatic components and also includes manual handling steps that challenge the sterility of the stromovascular component that is reintroduced into the patient, if the intent is to graft the processed stromovascular component back to the patient from whom a fat tissue is collected and the cells are harvested from the fat tissue.
There is a rapidly expanding interest in developing autologous stem cell treatments for various disorders affecting mankind. However, a rapid, cost effective, safe, and bedside device has yet not been developed. Accordingly, there is a need in developing the device and system described hereforth.